Methods for directing pointing detection conveyed by user when interfacing with a computer program

ABSTRACT

A method for detecting direction conveyed by a user when interfacing with a computer program executed on a computing device. The computing device being interfaced with an image capture device. The method includes detecting a human head of a person in the image taken with the image capture device and assigning the human head a head location. And, detecting an object held by the person in the image and assigning the object an object location. The method determines a relative position in space between the head location and the object location from the capture location, such that the relative position is used to identify a pointing direction of the object.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This application is a Continuation application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/301,673, entitled “METHODS AND SYSTEMS FORENABLING DIRECTION DETECTION WHEN INTERFACING WITH A COMPUTER PROGRAM”,filed on Dec. 12, 2005 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,646,372, which is acontinuation in part (CIP) of U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/663,236, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ADJUSTING A VIEW OF ASCENE BEING DISPLAYED ACCORDING TO TRACKED HEAD MOTION”, filed on Sep.15, 2003 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,883,415, and is also a continuation in part(CIP) of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/759,782, entitled “METHODAND APPARATUS FOR LIGHT INPUT DEVICE”, filed on Jan. 16, 2004 now U.S.Pat. No. 7,623,115. Each of the above identified applications is herebyincorporated by reference.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/302,511, filed on Dec. 12, 2005, entitled “METHODS AND SYSTEMS FORENABLING DEPTH AND DIRECTION DETECTION WHEN INTERFACING WITH A COMPUTERPROGRAM” to inventors Richard L. Marks and Hrishikesh R. Deshpande,which is hereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND Description of the Related Art

The video game industry has seen many changes over the years. Ascomputing power has expanded, developers of video games have likewisecreated game software that takes advantage of these increases incomputing power. To this end, video game developers have been codinggames that incorporate sophisticated operations and mathematics toproduce a very realistic game experience.

Example gaming platforms, may be the Sony Playstation or SonyPlaystation2 (PS2), each of which is sold in the form of a game console.As is well known, the game console is designed to connect to a monitor(usually a television) and enable user interaction through handheldcontrollers. The game console is designed with specialized processinghardware, including a CPU, a graphics synthesizer for processingintensive graphics operations, a vector unit for performing geometrytransformations, and other glue hardware, firmware, and software. Thegame console is further designed with an optical disc tray for receivinggame compact discs for local play through the game console. Onlinegaming is also possible, where a user can interactively play against orwith other users over the Internet.

As game complexity continues to intrigue players, game and hardwaremanufacturers have continued to innovate to enable additionalinteractivity. In reality, however, the way in which users interact witha game has not changed dramatically over the years. Commonly, usersstill play computer games using hand held controllers or interact withprograms using mouse pointing devices.

In view of the foregoing, there is a need for methods and systems thatenable more advanced user interactivity with game play.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Broadly speaking, the present invention fills these needs by providingan apparatus and method that facilitates interactivity with a computerprogram. In one embodiment, the computer program is a game program, butwithout limitation, the apparatus and method can find applicability inany consumer electronic device that will require a user to interacttherewith. The present invention simplifies user interaction experiencethrough machine recognizable gestures based on pointing to the interfaceand discriminating commands based on factors including trigger cues andposition determination of a hand or object under user control.

In one embodiment, a method for detecting direction conveyed by a userwhen interfacing with a computer program executed on a computing device.The computing device being interfaced with an image capture device. Themethod includes detecting a human head of a person in the image takenwith the image capture device and assigning the human head a headlocation. And, detecting an object held by the person in the image andassigning the object an object location. The method determines arelative position in space between the head location and the objectlocation from the capture location, such that the relative position isused to identify a pointing direction of the object. In one embodiment,the object is a body part of the user, other than the head of the user.

Other aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent fromthe following detailed description, taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, illustrating by way of example the principles ofthe invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention, together with further advantages thereof, may best beunderstood by reference to the following description taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawings.

FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate the environment of one embodiment of presentinvention, which takes advantage of the pointing direction determinationdescribed herein.

FIGS. 2-4 illustrate the analysis of the relative positions between aperson's head and a person's hand (or object held by the person), whendetermining pointing direction.

FIGS. 5A-5C illustrate tracking and triggering embodiments, which can beidentified by the computer program by the analysis of the captured imagedata, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 6A-6F illustrate alternate embodiments of detecting an object anddetecting changes in the object based on relative orientation of theobject itself, in accordance with one embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIGS. 7 and 8A-8B illustrate examples of hand positions, when the handpositions and shapes are analyzed to determine a desired trigger ortracking response by the computer program, in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 9 and 10 provide exemplary flow charts of the operations that canbe executed in determining a pointing direction, in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 11 and 12 provide exemplary embodiments of hardware that may beused in processing the computer code necessary to executed the claimedoperations, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 13A-13C illustrate exemplary embodiments for when depthinformation is considered when identifying objects to track, wheninterfacing with a system that needs to ascertain pointing direction, inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth inorder to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. Itwill be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the presentinvention may be practiced without some or all of these specificdetails. In other instances, well known process steps have not beendescribed in detail in order not to obscure the present invention.

FIG. 1A illustrates an interactive game setup 100, in accordance withone embodiment of the present invention. The interactive game setup 100includes a computer 102 that is coupled to a display screen 110. Animage capture device 105 is placed on top of the display screen 110 andis coupled to the computer 102. Computer 102 is, in one embodiment, agaming system console which allows users to play video games andinterface with the video games through controllers 108. The imagecapture device 105 is shown placed on top of the display screen 110, butit should be understood that the image capture device 105 can be placedin any other proximate location that will allow it to capture imagesthat are located about in front of the display screen 110. Techniquesfor capturing these movements and interactions can vary, but exemplarytechniques are described in United Kingdom Applications GB 0304024.3(PCT/GB2004/000693) and GB 0304022.7 (PCT/GB2004/000703), each filed onFeb. 21, 2003, and each of which is hereby incorporated by reference.

In a specific example, but not limited to any brand, the game consolecan be a one manufactured by Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., Nintendo,Microsoft, or any other manufacturer. The image capture device 105 canbe as simple as a standard web cam or can include more advancedtechnology. In one embodiment, the image capture device should becapable of capturing images, digitizing the images, and communicatingthe image data back to the computer 102. In some embodiments, the imagecapture device will have logic integrated therein for performing thedigitizing and another embodiment the image capture device 105 willsimply transmit the captured data back to the computer 102 fordigitizing. In either case, the image capture device 105 is capable ofcapturing either color or black and white images of any object locatedin front of the image capture device 105.

FIG. 1B illustrates an exemplary embodiment of the present invention inwhich the computer 102 processes image data provided by the imagecapture device 105 to ascertain a pointing direction of an object placedin front of the image capture device 105. As shown, the computer 102 isconnected to the image capture device 105. The image capture device 105is designed to focus onto a capture region 105 a. In this example, aperson 112 is intending to interact with a computer program beingexecuted by the computer 102. The computer program, in this example, isa video game which is rendered and displayed by the display screen 110.

For example purposes only, the video game is a target shooting game inwhich the person 112 wishes to aim at a target and earn pointscommensurate with his or her performance. As illustrated on the displayscreen 110, an image 112′ of the person 112 may also be placed on thedisplay screen 110 during game play. Alternatively, the person's image112′ may be omitted from the display screen, depending on the particulardevice under control or game being played. In this example, the userexperience may be enhanced by illustrating an image 112′ of the person112 during the target shooting exercise to present more reality duringgame play. A feature of the target shooting game is the ability forperson 112 to point or direct an object 124 at particular interactivegraphics on the display screen 110.

To achieve accurate pointing direction of the object 124, which in thiscase and for example purposes is a gun, the person 112 will hold theobject 124 with his or her hand 122. The hand 122 will be directionallypointed toward the display screen 110. The image capture device 105 willat this point, analyze the digital image capture of the person 112 todetermine the location of the person's 112 head 120, and the location ofthe person's 112 hand 122. As shown, the person's 112 hand is extendedin front of his body and the image capture device will identify theobject 124 when examining the captured digital image. The captureddigital image will also be examined by code executed at the computer 102to ascertain the location of the person's 112 head 120. In oneembodiment, head tracking is completed with a combination of a templatematching (for speed performance), coupled to a face detection code. Theface detection code will essentially identify the location of the user'sface by locating the user's eyes and other facial features. Foradditional information on head and face detection, reference may be madeto co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/663,236, entitled“METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ADJUSTING A VIEW OF A SCENE BEING DISPLAYEDACCORDING TO TRACKED HEAD MOTION”, filed on Sep. 15, 2003.

The object 124 will, in one embodiment, have an identifier which may becolor or lights (e.g., light emitting diodes “LEDs”) coupled to theobject so that the program analyzing the captured digital image willeasily identify the location of the object 124. Once the computerprogram has identified the location of the person's head 120 (H) and thelocation of the person's hand 122 (h), the computer program will performcomputations to determine a relative angle from the image capture deviceposition, and between the detected object 124, and the head 120.

As illustrated in FIG. 1B, the relative position of the object 124 andthe head 120 will be calculated relative to the image capture device105. This will produce two angle parameters (theta θ and phi Φ). Theazimuth angle θ will define the horizontal positioning between the head120 and the object 124 along an X axis. The phi angle Φ will produce thealtitude angle which is the relative angle between the height of thehead 120 and the height of the hand 122. In one embodiment, an initialcalibration operation may be performed before a gaming operation beginsto calibrate the object's pointing location on the display screen 110.For instance, the user may be prompted to calibrate the pointingalgorithm by having the user point the object 124 at a specific locationon the display screen 110. Once the calibration has been completed, thecomputer 102 will be able to calculate the azimuth angle and thealtitude angle (theta and phi) which define the relative positions ofthe person's head 120 and the person's hand 122, for each successiveframe being captured by the image capture device 105. The relativepositioning between the head and the hand may be calculated for eachcaptured frame or may be captured every other frame, or after a numberof frames are captured, depending on the accuracy required for thepointing operation. For example, if the game is a shooting gallery game,it would be important for the relative positioning of the head 120 andthe hand 122 to be computed for each frame so that the person 112 willhave accurate aiming and triggering capabilities when attempting tosecure a good performing score in the video game contest.

FIG. 2 illustrates a top view of the person 112 who is positioned infront of the display screen 110, in accordance with one embodiment ofthe present invention. In this example, an initial azimuth angle(theta₁) is shown being determined as the relative angle between theposition of the hand 122 (which is holding object 124), and the head120. The person 112, during interactive play with the computer program,will be facing the display screen 110 and most likely, will maintain hisbody substantially parallel to the display screen 110. When the person112 maintains his body substantially parallel to the display screen 110,movement of the hand 122 in direction 123 will cause the azimuth angleto be recomputed and produce a new azimuth angle theta₂.

In this example, the person 112 is holding the object 124 out in frontof his body at about arm's length. This distance is shown to be theapproximate arm's length detect (ALD) that defines the location of theapproximate place where the image capture device 105 will attempt tocapture the position of the hand 122 and associated object 124. Theapproximate arm's length detect (ALD) can vary, depending upon theuser's arm length, but generally should be provided to allow a distancerelationship between the location of the head 120 and the hand 122. Forinstance, there should be at least a minor projection of the hand 122 infront of the person's body to point to different locations of thedisplay screen 110.

FIG. 3 illustrates a front view of the person 112 where the head 120 isidentified and the hand 122 is identified, from the captured digitalimage. In this example, a dashed line represents the display screen 110and the image capture device 105 that is directionally pointed at theperson 112. In this example, the image capture device 105 will beillustrated to be at a coordinate space of (0, 0, 0), representing thereference point of the image capture device 105, and its position incoordinate space. The approximate location of the head 120 will alsohave an associated coordinate space (x H, y H, z H). Likewise, the hand122 and the associated object 124 that is held by the hand 122 will havea coordinate space (x h, y h, z h) that is relative to the image capturedevice 105.

FIG. 4 illustrates the person 112 pointing the object 124 at the displayscreen 110. In this example, the coordinate space of the head 120 isidentified in the digital image captured by the capture device 105. Thelocation in coordinate space of the hand 122 is also captured in thedigital image captured by the image capture device 105 when the person112 is pointing at the display screen 110. The image capture device 105is the reference point, which is at the coordinate space (0, 0, 0). Thealtitude angle phi is therefore calculated between the position of thehead 120 relative to the position of the hand 122. In one example, theangle is calculated as:Altitude angle=arctan((yh−yH)/(zh−zH))

In a similar manner, the azimuth angle theta of FIG. 2 is calculated as:Azimuth angle=arctan((xh−xH)/(zh−zH))

When the user moves his hand down (e.g., as captured in a later frame)as illustrated in FIG. 4, a new angle phi₂ will be produced to definethe new relative position between the hand 122 and the head 120 of theperson 112. Based on this new relative positioning of the head and thehand, the computer 102 will re-position the pointing direction on thedisplay screen.

FIG. 5A illustrates an embodiment where the object 124 is a gun. The gunmay be a simplified gun object that is configured to be pointed in thedirection of the display screen 110 to hit particular objects orinteract with objects on the display screen 110. In this example, thegun 124 will include a detection region 124 a. Detection region 124 a isthe region which is directionally pointed toward the display screen 110.The detection region 124 a is also the region that is captured by theimage capture device 105 for analysis of the digital image by thecomputer 102. In one embodiment, the detection region 124 a isconfigured to include a pair of lighting objects that will assist in theinteractivity with the computer program being executed by the computer102 and displayed on the display screen 110. In this example, a trackingindicator 130 is provided as a light or color object that is present onthe detection region 124 a. Based on the tracking indicator 130, theimage capture device 105 will produce a digital image that will beanalyzed by the computer 102 to identify the position in coordinatespace of the object 124. In this example, by providing the trackingindicator 130, the computer program being executed on the computer 102is able to quickly identify the location of the object 124 and inrelation to the head 120 of the person interacting with the computerprogram.

The tracking indicator 130 may be provided by way of a number ofimplementations. One implementation might be a light indicator that canbe tracked by the computer program that analyzes the captured digitalimages, or may be in the form of a color indicator that the computer canidentify quickly from the captured digital images. The hand itself maybe the tracking indicator 130. In still another embodiment, the tracingindicator 130 may be provided as a reflective tape that will havedifferent coloring or intensity depending on the angle that it might bedisplayed when shown to the image capture device 105. In this example,the object 104 is tracked as the user moves his hand 122 to differentregions pointed to on the display screen 110.

In one embodiment, while the user moves his hand 122 relative to thehead 120, the tracking indicator 130 will allow the computer program toprovide a visual indicator on the display screen 110. This visualindicator on the display screen 110 will allow the user to understandwhere the object is currently pointing to on the display screen 110.

In another embodiment, the detection region 124 a will also include atrigger indicator 132. The trigger indicator 132 may be in the form of alight that is triggered ON and OFF when the user pulls the trigger ofthe object 124. For instance, the detection region 124 a is shown inFIG. 5B after the trigger has been pulled and the trigger indicator 132is lit. When the trigger indicator 132 is lit as shown in FIG. 5B, thecomputer program executing on the computer 102 will provide an indictoron the display screen 110 so that the user can identify whether his orher pointing has accurately hit an object of the computer game. In FIG.5C, the trigger indicator 132 is shown to be in the OFF position tosignify that the object 124 will still remain actively tracked, but theshooting which can be continuous or intermittent, can be discontinuedwhen the user removes his finger from the trigger of the object 124. Thetrigger indicator 132 may operate in any frequency range, includingaudio, ultrasonic, visible light wave, infrared and radio. Passivetrigger indicator 132 may be achieved through a mechanical soundgenerated upon actuating a trigger and receiving and decoding the audioinput to the device and determining whether the trigger was actuated.

FIG. 6A illustrates another embodiment of the present invention wheretracking and trigger indicators 130 a and 132 a are provided. In thisexample, the track/trigger indicators 130 a and 132 a are provided sothat determinations can be made of the relative distances between thetwo indicators as shown by distance (d₁). In one example, the object,when pointed at the image capture device 105 may respond by having thecomputer program that is executed on the computer 102 to ascertain thedistance d₁ and perform an interactive action on the display screen.When the object 124 b is tilted relative to the starting position ofFIG. 6A, a second distance (d₂) is computed. This distance is the newdistance between the track/trigger indicators 130 a and 132 a. As theuser continues to tilt the object 124 b as shown in FIG. 6C, thedistance continues to shrink as shown by distance (d₃). Once the object124 b has been placed in the horizontal position relative to thevertical position of FIG. 6A, the distance between the track and triggerindicators 130 a and 132 a is brought to approximately zero. At thispoint, the program may read that the user intends for a trigger actionto occur, or any other action that can be triggered when the detecteddistance from d₁ to d₄ has been detected.

In another embodiment, the response by the computer program may begradually changed, depending on the angle at which the detection region124 b is tilted. For instance, the user may immediately begin to shootthe gun (or trigger the shooting of the gun) when the tilting begins andis executed between the tilt of FIG. 6B to the tilt of FIG. 6D. When theuser tilts the gun back to the original position, the gun maydiscontinue the shooting activity. Consequently, the trigger activitycaused by analyzing the patterns or colors of the tracking and triggerindicators of 130 a and 132 b can cause the computer program to react indifferent interactive ways.

An example of this interactivity may be to trigger a reloading operationto occur for a gun that is being used in a video game, or a change ofgun type being used on the video game program. Once these changes areprocessed, the video display screen 110 will produce a differentgraphical animation for the user, depending upon the control beingprovided and detected by the image capture device.

Commands and trigger states are not limited to an ON and OFF parameters,but can be incrementally changed depending on the position of therelative state and angles of the trigger and track indicators. Forexample, the state of the trigger may be determined in a linear orvariable state as opposed to ON or OFF. Any technique can be used todetermine the relative trigger position including a resistive types usedto control acceleration in remote control race tracks. The device, orgun in this example, can communicate the state of its trigger byencoding and transmitting its value in any of a multitude of ways knownin the art. A variety of commands and gestures may be formulated basedon the state of the trigger and the position of the device, includingthose based on all machine recognizable gestures.

FIGS. 6E and 6F provide yet another embodiment where different colorsmay be used to track tilt or relative tilt between positions of thedetection regions 124 c. In this example, the track and triggerindicators 130 b and 132 b are square or rectangular in dimension andcan be defined by colored tapes, bar codes, light indicators, LEDs, orthe like. As a user flips or tilts the detection region 124 c from theposition of FIG. 6E to FIG. 6F, for example, the reaction by thecomputer game as displayed on the computer display screen will change.

FIG. 7 illustrates another embodiment of the present invention in whicha hand 122 is used to control the interactivity on the display screen.The user may place the hand 122 in front of the image capture device 105and it is tracked relative to the head of the person 112. In thisexample, the user's hand is extended having of an index finger 140pointing at the display screen 110. The user's thumb 142 may be pointingupright to indicate to the computer program executing on the computer102 that the trigger device has not been activated. When the user'sthumb 142 is moved down toward the index finger 140 in the direction 122a, the computer program executing on a computer 102 may detect from thecaptured digital image that the user intends to shoot or trigger orinteractively point to a specific region on the display screen 110.Thus, the user's hand being placed in a different position can triggeran event or cause the interactivity of a command with a computer programbeing executed and shown on the display screen 110. For example, theuser may be able to shoot by different hand gestures, may be able toreload the gun with different gestures, and the different positions ororientations of the user's hand may cause different graphical renderingsof the user or gun on the display screen when the user is interactingwith a particular game program. In this embodiment, the state of thetrigger may be determined ON or OFF as described above, or, the triggermay be determined in a variable state. In the latter, the relativeposition of the user's thumb may range from, for example, the positionin which the thumb is substantially perpendicular to the pointing fingerand the position where the thumb is substantially parallel to thepointing finger and where the system performs image analysis of the handto yield a relative state of the thumb. This state may be mapped tovarious control schemes, including those relating to a scroll-wheel onmouse.

FIGS. 8A and 8B illustrate another example where the user's hand 122 maybe used to identify or trigger different activity on the display screen.In this example, FIG. 8A shows the user pointing directly at the displayscreen 110 and the computer program being executed to identify this handorientation on the digital image that was captured by the capturedevice. When a subsequent capture period occurs at a different point intime, the image of FIG. 8B might be captured and analyzed by thecomputer program. In this example, the user's hand is shown tilted fromwhere the thumb 142 is pointing upright to where the thumb 142 ispointing sideways. In this orientation, the user may be able to triggerthe shooting of a gun on the display screen, or the selection of an iconon a graphical display.

Consequently, the detection of the user's hand and the orientation ofthe user's hand can be used to provide the interactivity necessary whenanalyzing the position of the user's hand relative to the user's head,and the pointing activity on a display screen. The pointing activitywill allow the user to select icons, control the device under operation,shoot at graphical objects, select or scroll graphical objects,de-select graphical objects, turn ON and OFF graphical objects, dispersegraphical objects, or simply interface with the graphics icons andfeatures of a computer program being displayed on a display screen 110.However, in certain configurations, it may be desirable, that the systememploying the present invention may operate with minimal or no icons ona display screen. Instead, the system may simply just recognize thegestures of the user and provide a control input to the device underoperation. For example, a television or related peripheral configured orintegrated with the present invention may be controlled by the presentinvention. Changing a channel, for example, may not necessarily involveinteracting with an icon as opposed to recognizing a gesture commandaccording to the scheme presented in the present invention.

FIG. 9 illustrates a flowchart diagram 200 where a process foridentifying a pointing direction is described, in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention. In operation 202, the method beginsby providing a capture device for capturing image frames. The framecapture rate will depend on the particular implementation, and will notlimit the invention described herein. The capture device will, in oneembodiment, include a capture location in coordinate space. As shown inFIG. 4, the coordinate space of the image capture device is (0, 0, 0).In operation 204, a display screen is provided for rendering anddisplaying the interactive graphics of a computer program.

The interactive graphics of the computer program may be associated witha computer game and with any other program or interface that may requireinteractivity by a user. For instance, the interactivity may include theselection or de-selection of objects, opening files, changing channels,recording TV shows, closing files, accessing files over a network, orinteractively communicating with users by way of the interne, electronicmail or by electronic video mail, selecting a consumer electronicdevice, turning a device ON or OFF. Next, the operation 206 will includethe capturing of an image that is presented substantially in front ofthe image capture device. In one embodiment, the image will include aperson that is part of the captured space, and who is in front of thedisplay screen and the capture device.

Once the image has been captured in operation 206, operation 208 willinclude the identification of a human head of the person that is foundin the captured image. The identified human head will therefore beanalyzed to ascertain the head location in the coordinate space relativeto the capture location. The method then moves to operation 210 where anobject held by the person in the image is identified. The object'slocation is identified such that the coordinate space of the object isidentified relative to the coordinate space of the capture location.Having the identified head location and the identified object locationin memory, at operation 212, the computer program can identify arelative position in coordinate space between the head location and theobject location when viewed from the capture location reference point(e.g., coordinate (0,0,0)). As mentioned above, an azimuth angle and analtitude angle can be computed for the relative locations of the headand the hand relative to the image capture device. This relativeposition in coordinate space is calculated for the captured frame.

In operation 214, a pointing direction is established for the objectusing the relative position identified between the object location andthe head location. The pointing direction is displayed on the displayscreen to enable interaction with the interactive graphics provided bythe computer program and displayed on the display screen.

FIG. 10 illustrates a more detailed process diagram 250 that can beimplemented when determining the pointing direction of an object that isdirectionally pointed at a display screen during an interactivity with acomputer program. The method begins at operation 252 where the capturedevice for capturing image frames is provided. The capture device willhave a capture location in coordinate space. The coordinate space of thecapture location will be the reference point for performing operationsto determine relative locations in the process of identifyingdirectionality pointing.

The method moves to operation 254 where a display screen is provided forrendering interactive graphics of the computer program. The interactivegraphics may be a computer game or may be any other program as definedabove. In operation 256, an image is captured in front of the imagecapture device and a person is captured in the image. The captured imagemay be that of a digital frame of video. In one embodiment, the digitalframe of video may be a JPEG frame or may be part of a compressed videoframe (e.g., MPEG or the like).

Next, the operation moves to the identification of a human head of theperson in the captured image in operation 258. The human head isanalyzed on the captured image to determine a head location and thecoordinate space relative to the image capture device. In operation 260,the method moves to the identification of an object held by the personin the image and determining an object location in the coordinate space.In operation 262, a relative position is identified in the coordinatespace between the head location and the object location when viewed fromthe capture location of the capture device. The relative position willinclude a calculation of an azimuth angle and an altitude angle relativeto the image capture device.

In operation 264, during execution of the computer program, theoperations identified as A, B, C and D corresponding to operations 256,258, 260, and 262 will be performed iteratively and continuously,depending on a rate desired for the performance of a computer program.For instance, the execution of operations A through D will occur at therate of one time for each frame that is captured or only after a certainnumber of frames are captured. The rate at which operations A through Dare performed will therefore depend on the specific environment and theneed for accurate detection of the pointer location and the selectability of interactive objects on the display screen. If the displayscreen is processing a video game that has objects that are moving atrapid rates, the tracking operation may require that operations Athrough D be performed for each frame that is displayed on the videodisplay screen.

In operation 266, the method indicates a continual update of thepointing direction of the object using the relative position. Thepointing direction is displayed on the display screen to enableinteraction with the interactive graphics of the computer program. Itshould again be understood that the pointing direction can be to enablea user to select icons, de-select icons, move icons, open objects, openfiles, save files, move files, and interact with files that may be partof a file database, or part of a graphical user interface on a computerdesktop or the like.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of an exemplary user input system forinteraction with an object on a graphical display that can be used toimplement embodiments of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 11, theuser input system is comprised of a video capture device 300, an inputimage processor 302, an output image processor 304, and a video displaydevice 306. Video capture device 300 may be any device capable ofcapturing sequences of video images, and, in one embodiment, is adigital video camera (such as a “web-cam”), or similar image capturingdevice. As mentioned above, the video capture device may be configuredto provide depth image. Input image processor 302 translates thecaptured video images of the control object into signals that aredelivered to an output image processor. In one embodiment, input imageprocessor 302 is programmed to isolate the control object from thebackground in the captured video image through the depth information andgenerate an output signal responsive to the position and/or movement ofthe control object. The output image processor 304 is programmed toeffect translational and/or rotational movement of an object on thevideo display device 306 in response to signals received from the inputimage processor 302.

These and additional aspects of the present invention may be implementedby one or more processors which execute software instructions. Accordingto one embodiment of the present invention, a single processor executesboth input image processing and output image processing. However, asshown in the figures and for ease of description, the processingoperations are shown as being divided between an input image processor302 and an output image processor 304. It should be noted that theinvention is in no way to be interpreted as limited to any specialprocessor configuration, such as more than one processor. The multipleprocessing blocks shown in FIG. 11 are shown only for convenience ofdescription.

FIG. 12 is a simplified block diagram of a computer processing systemconfigured to implement the embodiments of the invention describedherein. The processing system may represent a computer-basedentertainment system embodiment that includes central processing unit(“CPU”) 424 coupled to main memory 420 and graphical processing unit(“GPU”) 426. CPU 424 is also coupled to Input/Output Processor (“IOP”)Bus 428. In one embodiment, GPU 426 includes an internal buffer for fastprocessing of pixel based graphical data. Additionally, GPU 426 caninclude an output processing portion or functionality to convert theimage data processed into standard television signals, for example NTSCor PAL, for transmission to display device 427 connected external to theentertainment system or elements thereof. Alternatively, data outputsignals can be provided to a display device other than a televisionmonitor, such as a computer monitor, LCD (Liquid Crystal Display)device, or other type of display device.

IOP bus 428 couples CPU 424 to various input/output devices and otherbusses or device. IOP bus 428 is connected to input/output processormemory 430, controller 432, memory card 434, Universal Serial Bus (USB)port 436, IEEE1394 (also known as a Firewire interface) port 438, andbus 450. Bus 450 couples several other system components to CPU 424,including operating system (“OS”) ROM 440, flash memory 442, soundprocessing unit (“SPU”) 444, optical disc controlling 4, and hard diskdrive (“HDD”) 448. In one aspect of this embodiment, the video capturedevice can be directly connected to IOP bus 428 for transmissiontherethrough to CPU 424; where, data from the video capture device canbe used to change or update the values used to generate the graphicsimages in GPU 426. Moreover, embodiments of the present invention canuse a variety of image processing configurations and techniques, such asthose described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/365,120 filedFeb. 11, 2003, and entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR REAL TIME MOTIONCAPTURE, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Thecomputer processing system may run on a CELL™ processor.

Programs or computer instructions embodying aspects of the presentinvention can be provided by several different methods. For example, theuser input method for interaction with graphical images can be providedin the form of a program stored in HDD 448, flash memory 442, OS ROM440, or on memory card 432. Alternatively, the program can be downloadedto the processing unit through one or more input ports coupled to CPU424. The program modules defining the input method can be provided withthe game or application program that is executed by CPU 424 anddisplayed on display device 427 or they may be provided separately fromthe application program, such as for execution from local main memory420.

In still another embodiment, the program may be executed partially on aserver connected to the internet and partially on the local computer(e.g., game console, desktop, laptop, or wireless hand held device).Still further, the execution can be entirely on a remote server orprocessing machine, which provides the execution results to the localdisplay screen. In this case, the local display or system should haveminimal processing capabilities to receive the data over the network(e.g., like the Internet) and render the graphical data on the screen.The user's input, by way of the capture device can be communicated backto the server and then the response represented on the screen.

FIGS. 13A-13C illustrate embodiments where depth data is taken intoconsideration in order to better identify the object used to perform thedirectional pointing. The object can be something the person is holdingor can also be the person's hand. In the this description, the terms“depth camera” and “three-dimensional camera” refer to any camera thatis capable of obtaining distance or depth information as well astwo-dimensional pixel information. For example, a depth camera canutilize controlled infrared lighting to obtain distance information.Another exemplary depth camera can be a stereo camera pair, whichtriangulates distance information using two standard cameras. Similarly,the term “depth sensing device” refers to any type of device that iscapable of obtaining distance information as well as two-dimensionalpixel information.

Recent advances in three-dimensional imagery have opened the door forincreased possibilities in real-time interactive computer animation. Inparticular, new “depth cameras” provide the ability to capture and mapthe third-dimension in addition to normal two-dimensional video imagery.With the new depth data, embodiments of the present invention allow theplacement of computer-generated objects in various positions within avideo scene in real-time, including behind other objects.

Moreover, embodiments of the present invention provide real-timeinteractive gaming experiences for users. For example, users caninteract with various computer-generated objects in real-time.Furthermore, video scenes can be altered in real-time to enhance theuser's game experience. For example, computer generated costumes can beinserted over the user's clothing, and computer generated light sourcescan be utilized to project virtual shadows within a video scene. Hence,using the embodiments of the present invention and a depth camera, userscan experience an interactive game environment within their own livingroom.

FIG. 13A is a block diagram of an exemplary system 500 for providing areal-time three-dimensional interactive environment, in accordance withan embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 13A, the system500 includes a depth camera 502, an input image processor 504, an outputimage processor 506, and a video display device 508.

As mentioned above, the depth camera 502 provides the ability to captureand map the third-dimension in addition to normal two-dimensional videoimagery. FIGS. 13B and 13C illustrated the images generated by a typicaldepth camera 502. In particular, FIG. 13B is an illustration showingtwo-dimensional data 520 captured using a typical depth camera. Similarto normal cameras, a depth camera captures two-dimensional data for aplurality of pixels that comprise the video image. These values arecolor values for the pixels, generally red, green, and blue (RGB) valuesfor each pixel. In this manner, objects captured by the camera appear astwo-dimension objects on a monitor. For example, in FIG. 13B, theexemplary scene includes a cylinder object 522 and a sphere object 524disposed on a table 526, which may be situated among hills 528.

However, unlike a conventional camera, a depth camera also capturesdepth values for the scene. FIG. 13C is an illustration showing depthdata 550 captured using a typical depth camera. As illustrated in FIG.13B, the depth camera captures the x and y components of a scene usingRGB values for each pixel in the scene. However, as shown in FIG. 13C,the depth camera also captures the z-components of the scene, whichrepresent the depth values for the scene. Since the depth valuescorrespond to the z-axis, the depth values are often referred to asz-values.

In operation, a z-value is captured for each pixel of the scene. Eachz-value represents a distance from the camera to a particular object inthe scene corresponding to the related pixel. For example, in FIG. 13C,z-values are illustrated for the cylinder object 552, the sphere object554, and part of the table 556. In addition, a maximum detection rangeis defined beyond which depth values will not be detected. For example,in FIG. 13C the maximum depth range 558 appears as vertical planewherein all pixels are given the same depth value. As will be describedin greater detail below, this maximum range plane can be utilized by theembodiments of the present invention to provide user defined objecttracking. Thus, using a depth camera, each object can be tracked inthree dimensions. As a result, a computer system of the embodiments ofthe present invention can utilize the z-values, along with thetwo-dimensional pixel data, to create an enhanced three-dimensionalinteractive environment for the user. For more information on depthanalysis, reference may be made to U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/448,614, entitled System and Method for Providing a Real-time threedimensional interactive environment, having a filing date of May 29,2003, which is incorporated herein by reference.

Embodiments of the present invention also contemplate distributed imageprocessing configurations. For example, the invention is not limited tothe captured image and display image processing taking place in one oreven two locations, such as in the CPU or in the CPU and one otherelement. For example, the input image processing can just as readilytake place in an associated CPU, processor or device that can performprocessing; essentially all of image processing can be distributedthroughout the interconnected system. Thus, the present invention is notlimited to any specific image processing hardware circuitry and/orsoftware. The embodiments described herein are also not limited to anyspecific combination of general hardware circuitry and/or software, norto any particular source for the instructions executed by processingcomponents.

With the above embodiments in mind, it should be understood that theinvention may employ various computer-implemented operations involvingdata stored in computer systems. These operations include operationsrequiring physical manipulation of physical quantities. Usually, thoughnot necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical ormagnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined,compared, and otherwise manipulated. Further, the manipulationsperformed are often referred to in terms, such as producing,identifying, determining, or comparing.

The above described invention may be practiced with other computersystem configurations including hand-held devices, microprocessorsystems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics,minicomputers, mainframe computers and the like. The invention may alsobe practiced in distributing computing environments where tasks areperformed by remote processing devices that are linked through acommunications network.

The invention can also be embodied as computer readable code on acomputer readable medium. The computer readable medium is any datastorage device that can store data which can be thereafter read by acomputer system, including an electromagnetic wave carrier. Examples ofthe computer readable medium include hard drives, network attachedstorage (NAS), read-only memory, random-access memory, CD-ROMs, CD-Rs,CD-RWs, magnetic tapes, and other optical and non-optical data storagedevices. The computer readable medium can also be distributed over anetwork coupled computer system so that the computer readable code isstored and executed in a distributed fashion.

Although the foregoing invention has been described in some detail forpurposes of clarity of understanding, it will be apparent that certainchanges and modifications may be practiced within the scope of theappended claims. Accordingly, the present embodiments are to beconsidered as illustrative and not restrictive, and the invention is notto be limited to the details given herein, but may be modified withinthe scope and equivalents of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for detecting direction conveyed by a user when interfacing with a computer program executed on a computing device, the computing device being interfaced with an image capture device, comprising: (a) detecting a human head of a person in an image taken with the image capture device and assigning the human head a head location; (b) detecting an object held by the person in the image and assigning the object an object location; (c) determining a relative position in space between the head location and the object location from a capture location of the image capture device, the relative position used to identify a pointing direction of the object; (d) displaying the pointing direction of the object on a display screen; and (e) updating the pointing direction of the object on the display screen based on a change in the relative position between the head location and the object location, wherein the pointing direction of the object is updated on the display screen when the head location changes independent of a change in the object location, wherein the method is executed by one or more processors.
 2. The method for detecting direction conveyed by a user when interfacing with a computer program executed on a computing device as recited in claim 1, further comprising: capturing a plurality of frames through the image capture device, each of the frames being analyzed to process (a)-(c); and determining changes in the pointing direction of the object over the plurality of analyzed frames.
 3. The method for detecting direction conveyed by a user when interfacing with a computer program executed on a computing device as recited in claim 2, wherein the determined changes in the pointing direction of the object are translated to detected motion of the pointing direction of the object over the plurality of frames captured through the image capture device.
 4. The method for detecting direction conveyed by a user when interfacing with a computer program executed on a computing device as recited in claim 1, wherein the pointing direction of the object is translated as a pointing location on the display screen, the display screen being located below the location of the image capture device.
 5. The method for detecting direction conveyed by a user when interfacing with a computer program executed on a computing device as recited in claim 1, wherein the relative position is identified by computing a first angle and a second angle between the head location and the object location in relation to the capture location.
 6. The method for detecting direction conveyed by a user when interfacing with a computer program executed on a computing device as recited in claim 1, wherein the display screen is configured to render interactive graphics.
 7. The method for detecting direction conveyed by a user when interfacing with a computer program executed on a computing device as recited in claim 1, further comprising: enabling interactivity with particular interactive graphics presented on the display screen using a graphic indicator of the pointing direction of the object.
 8. The method for detecting direction conveyed by a user when interfacing with a computer program executed on a computing device as recited in claim 7, wherein the interactivity includes selection of a graphic, shooting of a graphic, touching a graphic, moving of a graphic, activation of a graphic, triggering of a graphic, acting upon or with a graphic, or a combination thereof.
 9. The method for detecting direction conveyed by a user when interfacing with a computer program executed on a computing device as recited in claim 1, wherein detecting the human head is processed using face detection.
 10. The method for detecting direction conveyed by a user when interfacing with a computer program executed on a computing device as recited in claim 1, wherein detecting the object is facilitated using colors, lights, or a combination thereof, or a combination of identifying differences in colors, lights, and shapes, or identifying on or off states.
 11. The method for detecting direction conveyed by a user when interfacing with a computer program executed on a computing device as recited in claim 1, wherein the computer program is a video game.
 12. The method for detecting direction conveyed by a user when interfacing with a computer program executed on a computing device as recited in claim 1, wherein the computer program is either local to the image capture device or networked over the internet.
 13. A method for detecting direction conveyed by a user when interfacing with a computer program executed on a computing device, the computing device being interfaced with an image capture device, comprising: (a) detecting a human head of a person in an image taken with the image capture device and assigning the human head a head location; (b) detecting a body part of the person, other than the human head, in the image and assigning the body part a body part location; (c) determining a relative position in space between the head location and the body part location from a capture location of the image capture device, the relative position used to identify a pointing direction of the body part; (d) displaying the pointing direction of the body part on a display screen; and (e) updating the pointing direction of the body part on the display screen based on a change in the relative position between the head location and the body part location, wherein the pointing direction of the body part is updated on the display screen when the head location changes independent of a change in the body part location, wherein the method is executed by one or more processors.
 14. The method for detecting direction when interfacing with a computer program executed on a computing device as recited in claim 13, further comprising: capturing a plurality of frames through the image capture device, each of the frames being analyzed to process (a)-(c); and determining changes in the pointing direction of the body part over the plurality of analyzed frames.
 15. The method for detecting direction conveyed by a user when interfacing with a computer program executed on a computing device as recited in claim 14, wherein the determined changes in the pointing direction of the body part are translated to detected motion of the pointing direction of the body part over the plurality of frames captured through the image capture device.
 16. The method for detecting direction conveyed by a user when interfacing with a computer program executed on a computing device as recited in claim 13, wherein the pointing direction of the body part is translated as a pointing location on the display screen, the display screen being located below the location of the image capture device.
 17. The method for detecting direction conveyed by a user when interfacing with a computer program executed on a computing device as recited in claim 13, wherein the relative position is identified by computing a first angle and a second angle between the head location and the body part in relation to the capture location.
 18. The method for detecting direction conveyed by a user when interfacing with a computer program executed on a computing device as recited in claim 13, further comprising enabling interactivity with particular interactive graphics presented on the display screen using a graphic indicator of the pointing direction of the body part.
 19. The method for detecting direction conveyed by a user when interfacing with a computer program executed on a computing device as recited in claim 18, wherein the interactivity includes selection of a graphic, shooting of a graphic, touching a graphic, moving of a graphic, activation of a graphic, movement of a graphic, triggering of a graphic, acting upon or with a graphic, or a combination thereof.
 20. The method for detecting direction conveyed by a user when interfacing with a computer program executed on a computing device as recited in claim 13, wherein detecting the human head is processed using face detection and detecting the body part is facilitated by identifying shapes.
 21. The method for detecting direction conveyed by a user when interfacing with a computer program executed on a computing device as recited in claim 13, wherein the computer program is a video game or an interactive communication program.
 22. The method for detecting direction conveyed by a user when interfacing with a computer program executed on a computing device as recited in claim 13, wherein the computer program is either local to the image capture device or networked over the internet. 